Annual investment in global water treatment infrastructure is expected to approach $90 Billion this decade. Water treatment, particularly in reclamation and treatment for re-use, is a high growth area in the water treatment market, with the percentage of recycled treated water use in US industrial markets doubling from 1985 to 2000. Further compounding this growth is the increase in industrial water usage in emerging markets, and the subsequent need for water treatment infrastructure as the percentage of water consumption for industrial markets continues to increase. Currently, chemical consumption for disinfectant and biocide treatment account for up to 15% of the water treatment chemical market, and this is expected to remain at this level through 2015.
Over 78% of the Earth's atmosphere is composed of nitrogen gas, and nitrogen is an essential nutrient for both plants and animals. Nitrogen is a major component of: chlorophyll, the compound used by plants to produce sugars from water and carbon dioxide in the presence of sunlight; amino acids, the building blocks of proteins; energy-transfer compounds such as ATP; and DNA, the genetic material that allows cells (and therefore whole plants) to grow and reproduce. Intensive agriculture and horticulture deplete nitrogen and nitrogen-producing microorganisms from the soil, and hence nitrogen needs to be replaced in order for healthy plants to grow.
Almost all nitrogen used by plants includes nitrates or ammonium compounds. Ammonium compounds are typically manufactured using the Haber-Bosch process which uses natural gas and nitrogen at high temperature and pressure to form ammonia. The ammonia is then used to produce nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and ammonium nitrate. Ammonia can also be dissolved in water and used as a fertilizer. This is known as aqua ammonia.
Fertigation is the application of fertilizers through an irrigation system. Fertigation is most commonly used to fertilize high value crops such as fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. Nitrogen is the most common substance used in fertigation.
The current global use of nitrogen fertilizer nitrogen is about 110 million tons per year. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests that there will be a two to three fold increase in nitrogen fertilizer by the second half of the 21st century as diets move away from cereals, roots, tubers and pulses towards more livestock products and fruits and vegetables which require increased fertilizer use.
The world's largest consumers of nitrogen fertilizer are East Asia, South Asian, North America and Western Europe. Behind China, the United States is the second largest producer and consumer of fertilizer in the world. North America is the largest importer of nitrogen fertilizer as domestic production capacity is limited. In 2011, the US imported 10.79 million tons of nitrogen (54% of its requirements). The United States' fertilizer market was worth $19.7 billion in 2011, 33% of which comprised nitrogen fertilizer. During the five years to 2017, industry revenue is expected to increase at an average annual rate of 3.2% to $32 billion.
Like fertilizers, there is a huge global market for pesticides: Global pesticide use was $32.665 billion in 2004, with herbicides accounting for 45.4%. More than half of the world's pesticides are used in North America and Western Europe. The total herbicide use in US agriculture was 158,000 tons in 2005. The United States' pesticide industry was worth $15.4 billion in 2011, and herbicides accounted for 60% of these revenues. Over the five years to 2017, revenue is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.5% to $16.6 billion.